During the preliminary hearing, a Visalia Police detective testified about his interview with William Stallworth on the night of the shooting.

Stallworth told the detective that he was talking to a man named Paco outside a parked car while his two-year-old son William Stallworth Jr. played in the front seat of the car.

Stallworth said he looked away briefly, heard a pop, and saw that his son had shot himself with a gun that was in the car's center console.

"For the DA to charge second degree murder in this case is really in our opinion a rush to judgment," said Stallworth's defense attorney Caree Harper. "This is just a very tragic situation and we think that that shouldn't be the case."